I have put up a "new" video onto youtube! I say "new" because it's not really new. It's a song I recorded probably a year ago.
I didn't make any video on this, so it's just a black screen through the whole song. This because I lack the time to shoot any video footage... Sorry about that... I will make a video on it later!
In the last blog entry, I said I was going to review my acoustic guitar, the Taylor GS Mini. And here it comes!
Taylor GS Mini
I have had this guitar since summer 2011, so soon to be 2 years. The previous acoustic guitar I had was a cheap 100 dollar guitar, which was large and not comfortable playing on. The fretboard was bad and It hurt my fingertips playing it. When I got this, it was like heaven compared with the old one. The Taylor GS Mini is very easy to play on, meaning that you don't need to press your fingertips that hard on the fretboard in order to play notes. Major plus in my book!
Over to some technical data. The Taylor GS Mini is really a Grand Symphony guitar in 3/4 scale. If you are familiar with Taylor guitars, it can be compared with the Big Baby and Baby Taylor guitars. The total scale length is 597 mm with 20 frets.
Taylor GS Mini Mahogany
The GS Mini is only 1,8 kg (4 pounds), which is fairly lightweight. It is made up by both solid and laminate wood. The top is Sitka Spruce, with the neck and sides being Sapele. Giving it an good sound over the entire sound spectrum. With the sides being laminated wood, it makes the guitar suitable for travel playing because the laminate is stronger and more resistant to cracks. It has chrome tuning pegs and comes with a truss rod, which makes in resistant to changes in temperature while on the road. A truss rod in a steel rod that runs through the neck of the guitar used to stabilize and adjust the lengthwise forward curvature of the neck, which is also called relief.
The sound of the guitar is awesome. This small guitar can play loud. It has a nice tone both with finger style and strumming. When strumming it has rich powerful sound due to the large sound hole. The tuning holds very nice, even when changing it often. I often play with standard tuning and DADGAD tuning, and it holds the tuning very nice.
The guitar I have is 100 % acoustic, but Taylor has pickup which is easily installed in 5 minutes. The guitar has a removable end pin where you can install the jack to the pickup. The pick is optional when buying the guitar, but it can also be bought later for around a hundred dollars.
Overall the guitar is awesome to look at, awesome to play on and awesome to listen to. I don't use it as a travel guitar. I used it as my main and only acoustic guitar and I play any kind of genre. And for its listing price, this is an excellent buy for any guitar player. It also comes in a Mahogany version with the Sitka Spruce top being replaced by a Mahogany top.
If you are interested in seeing the guitars size or hearing the sound of the guitar, you can watch me play Andy McKee's "Drifting" underneath.
I have been very busy the last two days and haven't had the chance to write any. But not to worry. Tomorrow I will write a review of my favorite instrument! My Taylor GS Mini acoustic guitar!
I thought I might guide you through the gear that I'm currently using to record music and sound.
I use several guitars, both acoustic and electric. Two acoustic guitars (Woodrock and Taylor GS Mini)
and three electric guitars (Squier Stratocaster, Ibanez RG350EXZ and a Ibanez RG7321 7string). I also got a bassguitar (Cort), a keyboard (Yamaha YPG-235), an electric drumset (Roland TD KX2 V-drums) and an electric piano (Roland F-120 SBA).
I got and Marshall 1960A cabinet with a Randall RH50T Tube amplifier head and a Orange Crush 30W Bass amplifier. Usually only used when practicing.
I got a MXL 990 and a MXL 991 condenser microphones. To record vocals and acoustic guitars I used to connect the condenser-microphones to a mixer, which is the Behringer XENYX 1202FX, which was connected to the computer. But that was when I used Audacity as my DAW. The Behringer mixer has phantom power which is what you need if you're going to use a condenser microphone. The phantom power gives the microphone power. Without that it simply won't work.
After a while I bought an Mbox with ProTools 9, which is the DAW I currently use. The Mbox has two inputs for jacks and two mic/line inputs. The Mbox is only connected to the computer by a USB cable.
I also got a effect pedal that I connect to my Randall/Marshall stack. The pedal is a ZOOM G9.2tt. I usually don't use this when I record, but I use it when I'm practicing. This is because I don't mic up the amplifier when I record, I use direct input into the Mbox.
When I record in ProTools, I use a USB-keyboard called KeyRig 49 from M-Audio. It's a small bus powered 49-key MIDI keyboard that is easy to use. Bus powered meaning that it gets power from the USB-connection, just like a typing keyboard or a mouse on your computer. This keyboard is great to create music with virtual instruments. You can choose a variety of instruments in ProTools and use this keyboard to create the notes. If you're familiar with MIDI, you will know that a MIDI-keyboard doesn't create notes. It only tells the program what notes it should generate.
Under you can see a slideshow of some of the gear. If you have questions about the gear or how it's connected, comment in the comment section below.
If you want to see the rest of the gear, check out my videos on youtube here.
